What Israel’s Spate of High-Profile Sex Scandals Says About Its Culture

Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke15 Jan 2016

The Times of Israel reports: Yaniv Nahman was a well-known figure in Tel Aviv’s nightlife scene. Multiple women described meeting the handsome investment manager at a club, then waking up in his bed the next morning without any recollection of how they got there.

Police suspected he was using the date rape drug GHB but couldn’t prove it because by the time women filed a police complaint, it was no longer detectable in their bloodstream.

Nahman agreed to a plea bargain in which he admitted to one instance of rape, and on December 27 he was sentenced to 6 months of community service. The judge cited several reasons for the light sentence: first, he did not use a lot of force and second, the shaming he experienced on social media during the trial had done irreparable damage to his reputation.

The decision had women’s groups in Israel up in arms, including the Counseling Center for Women.